éludervséluesTell them apart

Quick tell: éluder is a verb, élues is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“éluder” is a verb and “élues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,874
“éluder” frequency rank
#28,027
“élues” frequency rank
76901
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature éluder élues
Definition Éviter avec adresse par désir de se dérober. Féminin pluriel de élu.

Where the eye mixes éluder and élues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
éluder
5 ch
élues

Why the eye confuses éluder with élues

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: éluder is \e.ly.de\ while élues is \e.ly\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76901, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

éluder is recorded at frequency rank #48,874, classified as averb, pronounced \e.ly.de\. élues is at rank #28,027, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.ly\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 76901, this pair ranks #29,864 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of éluder vs élues

Shared letters: elué. Private to "éluder": dr. Private to "élues": s.

"éluder" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "élues" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "éluder" for "élues" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "éluder" is a verb and "élues" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "éluder" or "élues"?
"élues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,027 in our French list, against #48,874 for "éluder". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "éluder" and "élues" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "éluder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "élues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,864 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "éluder" and "élues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Elmer vs éluder". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #29,864 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list